Thrashin'

Nick Thomas

English 102

Amber Tetrick

4 April 2006

Thrashin'

Skateboarding is a sport of passion, sweat, blood, and tears. There are no constraints on becoming a skateboarder, all it takes is love for the sport and determination. The sport itself proves the determination that goes into becoming a skateboarder. The sport has been around for a long time, as far as I can tell since the early 1900's when people took the wheels off of their roller skates and nailed them to two by fours. By 1959 the sport had evolved to using clay wheels, and was building up steam to becoming a major sport. In the early 1960's people really started getting into skating, using empty pools to skate in which led to the idea of a half pipe. Soon, though, skateboarding lost some popularity because nobody was producing quality products for the enthusiasts. Then, sometime in the mid 1970's, Frank Nasworthy invented the urethane skateboard wheel allowing the sport to advance and continue to grow. Soon after, in 1976, the first outdoor skate park was built in Florida. The actual skateboard models became wider for better balance. Now that skateboarding was back in full swing it picked up even more fans who in turn helped skateboarding evolve into what it is today. New moves, like the ollie, which is kicking the back of the board to make it jump, started almost a competition between skaters to create and perfect new and better tricks. This competition brought about actual skating competitions with prizes and crowds, a way to become known. The competitions started small as did the crowds. The next step was videos of skateboarders, yet another way to show off one's skills and become known. As the years progressed skateboarding exploded and could no longer be ignored, competitions became more popular, prizes became bigger, and winning the competitions meant being among the first greats of skateboarding.

Judging just by the history of the sport and it's resolve to become known, it is obvious that to become a skateboarder you have to be persistent. During one of my visits to Rhodes Skate Park, a skate park in downtown Boise, I witnessed first hand the work skaters put into their hobby. I saw many novices, semi-good skaters, and plenty of skaters who were incredible. The one thing they had in common was their determination to "stomp" or land the trick they were working on. I was down at the park for around an hour and a half and there was one guy who was trying the same trick from the time I got there to the time I left. It was amazing to watch someone fall so many times and hurt themselves repeatedly, and yet get back up and try the same thing. I had to pull him aside and ask him what was behind his determination. His name was Cory, and he told me, "I want to

be the best." Simple and to the point. "I want to be known as the guy who changed skateboarding forever!" he added. I thanked him for his time and watched as he went back to doing the same thing he had been doing for the last hour and a half. Cory was not the only person at the skate park that stood out to me. There was one guy who was wizzing around the whole park utilizing every obstacle in his way, and if it wasn't in his way, he made sure it was on his next loop around. I waited until he stopped for a drink out of the bottle in the brown bag that he had brought along with him. "I'm working on my line." Zach responded as I asked him what exactly it was that he was doing. "A line is putting a series of tricks into one smooth routine, I guess." I asked him what for and he told me, "Sponsors don't look for someone who can do a bunch of tricks, they look for someone that can do a bunch of tricks, put them together and make it look good." Zach was not from Idaho, he was actually from Southern California and had just recently moved here. "The competition is fierce when you are trying to get sponsored. Skateboarding goes way beyond the skate park, people ollie gaps between roofs." Zach told me. All this talk about sponsors made me wonder what they do for the skateboarders that makes them so coveted. "Sponsors give you free stuff, man. They have all the hook ups, if you have a good sponsor you can get better deals and meet newer and better sponsors." Zach informed me. Apparently skateboarders go through several decks (which is the piece of wood the makes up the majority of the skateboard) in one day. Having a sponsor that makes decks allows you to get free decks whenever you break one. There are sponsors for shoes, trucks (which are the pieces of metal that attach the wheels to the deck), wheels, bearings for the wheels, and just about anything else having to do with skateboarding including the clothes. No wonder everyone wants to be sponsored, the sponsors give you just about everything except your rent money and groceries.

So far what I thought made a skateboarder was completely wrong. I thought they were all self indulged people who hated authority figures. Most of the skaters were very nice and if I was in the way, they asked me nicely to move so they could use my bench as an obstacle. As for the part about hating authority figures, I saw several police cars slow to a roll when they passed the skate park. I noticed a lot of kids glaring at the police car, they even stopped skating to shoot a mean glance in the police man's direction. I didn't feel comfortable approaching anyone and asking them why, but I noticed several groups of people moving towards the bathrooms provided at the park and emerging in a cloud of smoke. I doubted they were just underage smokers. As I was getting ready to leave Rhodes Park another cop approached in his cruiser and actually got out to scope the whole park out. He went over to Zach, the guy with the bottle in the brown bag, and exchanged a few lines with him and soon Zach took his bottle over to the trash can and poured it out. From my observations, skaters don't like authority figures like cops because they put a damper on some of their fun.

I have a cousin and a few friends that are skaters so I asked if I could go with them the next time they went out skating. I went with them but they didn't go to a skate park like I expected, instead the went to one of their favorite skate spots, Boise High School. This is where I learned why they dislike other types of authority figures. They got right into it no warming up or anything. My cousin Matt started off by stomping an ollie down a flight of six stairs. Matt's friend one-upped him by pulling a 360 flip down the stairs, which is an ollie combined with

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